Effective 28 Aug 2004

160.720. Priority schools identified, criteria — comprehensive school improvement plan required, contents — educational audits, requirements — evaluation of plan, time lines — withholding of funds, when — rules. — 1. The department of elementary and secondary education shall identify as a priority school any school building or attendance center that fails to meet acceptable standards of student achievement established by the state board of education and based upon factors which shall include, but not be limited to, student assessments, graduation rate, drop-out rate, school attendance rate, graduate placement in college, vocational or technical school, or high-wage employment and incidence of school violence.

2. The board of education of any district that contains a priority school shall submit a comprehensive school improvement plan that provides for the following:

(1) Identification of the areas of academic deficiency in student performance on the statewide assessment established pursuant to section 160.518 by disaggregating scores based upon school, grade, academic content area and student demographic subgroups, which shall include, but shall not be limited to, race, ethnicity, disability status, migrant status, limited English proficiency, and economic disadvantage;

(2) Implementation of research-based strategies to assist the priority school in addressing the areas of deficiency;

(3) Alignment of the priority school's curriculum to address deficiencies in student achievement;

(4) Reallocation of district resources to address the areas of academic deficiency, which shall include focusing available funding on professional development in the areas of deficiency; and

(5) Listing of all school buildings and attendance centers declared to be priority schools in the district's annual school accountability report distributed pursuant to section 160.522.

3. The state board of education may appoint a team to conduct an educational audit of any priority school to determine the factors that have contributed to the lack of student achievement and shall give audit priority to schools based upon failure to meet standards of student achievement as established pursuant to this section.

(1) An audit team shall include an experienced teacher and an experienced administrator from successful school districts of comparable size and per-pupil funding. The size of the audit team shall be based upon the size of the school to be audited;

(2) The audit team shall report its findings to the state board of education and the local board of education;

(3) The state board may require all or part of those findings to be addressed in the comprehensive school improvement plan required pursuant to this section.

4. Comprehensive school improvement plans shall be evaluated based upon standards established pursuant to subsection 2 of this section and upon the following time lines:

(1) The comprehensive school improvement plan shall be submitted to the department of elementary and secondary education on or before August fifteenth following any school year in which a school district building meets the criteria established under subsection 1 of this section;

(2) The department of elementary and secondary education shall review and identify areas of concern in the plan within sixty days of receipt; and

(3) Changes to the plan shall be forwarded to the department of elementary and secondary education within sixty days of notice to the district of the areas of concern.

5. The department of elementary and secondary education shall withhold funds authorized in section 163.031 from any school district that fails to submit a comprehensive school improvement plan based upon the standards and time lines established in this section. Withheld funds shall be released upon submission of a comprehensive school improvement plan that meets the established requirements.

6. Designation as a priority school and the effectiveness of the school district in implementing the comprehensive school improvement plan required under this section shall be considered by the state board of education in the school district's accreditation granted pursuant to section 161.092.

7. No rule or portion of a rule promulgated under this section shall become effective unless it has been promulgated pursuant to chapter 536.

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(L. 2002 H.B. 1711, A.L. 2004 S.B. 1080)